At home with friends

Melting pot

Though he is from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Vir Singh spent a few years of his childhood in Bengaluru as his father was working in the Defence  sector. 

“From 1987 to 1991, I was here. My initial schooling was in the City. Those days, life here was totally different. The only areas we knew about were Shivajinagar, Majestic and MG Road,” he laughs.

 Later, he moved out of the City and finished his schooling across India. After completing his MBA in Meerut, it was a job opportunity in Bengaluru that brought him back here. And now, the sales and marketing professional who works with Confianzys Consulting Pvt Ltd, is totally in love with the City. “What better place to work in than Bengaluru. It is the most reputed IT hub in the country. Even education wise, the people of the North prefer it. In fact, I even love the traffic here,” he laughs. 

His wife Sonika Singh is from Delhi and moved to the City four years ago after their marriage. However, she also had a tryst with Karnataka previously as she finished her college education in Mysuru. A physiotherapist by profession, she has taken a break from work to look after their three-year-old daughter Avishka and attends to patients from home now. “I am still adjusting to the City. There are many differences between Bengaluru and Delhi,” she rues. 

“But on the brighter side, there are many facilities here and education is definitely one of the best things about the City. The children who study here are more exposed, disciplined and knowledgable,” she adds.  

While Vijay can understand Kannada very well, Sonika can speak the language too, thanks to her years in Mysuru. “But everyone speaks Hindi and English here so language has never been a problem,” says Sonika. “It’s a cosmopolitan place where you see people from every part of the country,” says Vijay. 

Every Friday night, the family of three gets together with their friends to celebrate, what Vijay calls the ‘family night’. “We all play badminton and even my daughter enjoys it,” he says. 

The family also heads out to Phoenix MarketCity during the weekends. “That’s our first choice whenever we head out,” says Vijay. They also like going to Wonder La and weekend destinations around like Mysuru, Bandipur and Cochin. But Sonika misses the street markets of Delhi here. “Also, the taste of street food like ‘gol gappas’ and ‘chaat papdi’ is just not the same,” she laments. 

Even as most people enjoy the cosy weather Bengaluru has to offer, the couple worries about the health problems it brings along. “Since it’s unpredictable, our daughter often falls sick,” says Sonika to which Vijay adds, “There is some charm about extreme weather which Bengaluru doesn’t have.” He further jokes, “All our winter clothes are packed away. I miss wearing jackets.”   

The family also worries about the increasing rate of crime in the City. “Earlier, we felt safer as the crime rate here is lesser than that of Delhi. But of late, kids are being attacked in schools also and that’s worrying,” says Sonika. She also wishes the Metro construction would speed up. “The Delhi Metro is extremely helpful and well-connected. It is comfortable and one can skip traffic without worrying about driving on their own,” she says while Vijay says, “I wish the call centre vans and cabs wouldn’t drive so rashly.”  

Though they miss celebrating festivals like ‘Holi’ back home with family, they observe them with their friends in the apartments. 

The family cherishes their friends’ circle here the most. “Bengaluru has given us the best of friends, from various parts of India and we are so grateful to the City for that,” wraps up Vijay.